Adela Constantia Mary Pankhurst Walsh (1885-1961) was a British-Australian
suffragetteSuffragette is a term originally coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for the more radical and militant members of the late-19th and early-20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
, political organizer, and co-founder of both the
Communist Party of AustraliaThe Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991. It achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted banning in 1951...
and the
Australia First MovementAustralia First Movement was a proto-fascist movement which grew out of the Rational Association and the Victorian Socialist Party. Adela Pankhurst Walsh, of the famous suffragette family was involved in it, along with W. J. Miles, Rhodes scholar Percy Stephensen, Xavier Herbert, as well as famous...
.
Adela was born on 19 June 1885 in
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, into a politicized family: her father,
Richard PankhurstRichard Marsden Pankhurst was the son of Henry Francis Pankhurst and Margaret Marsden . He was born in Stoke but spent most of his life in Manchester and London. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Owens College of Manchester...
was a socialist and candidate for
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
, and her mother
Emmeline PankhurstEmmeline Pankhurst was an English political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement, which won women the right to vote...
and sisters
SylviaEstelle Sylvia Pankhurst was a notable campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism, and for peace....
and
ChristabelDame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE was a suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union , she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914 she became a fervent supporter of the war against Germany...
were leaders of the British suffragist movement. Adela attended the all-woman
Studley Horticultural CollegeStudley College was a horticultural and agricultural college for women in Warwickshire, England which operated from 1898 until 1969.-History:...
in Warwickshire, and
Manchester High School for GirlsManchester High School for Girls is an independent daytime school for girls and a member of the Girls School Association. It is situated in Fallowfield, Manchester, United Kingdom...
.
Adela Constantia Mary Pankhurst Walsh (1885-1961) was a British-Australian
suffragetteSuffragette is a term originally coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for the more radical and militant members of the late-19th and early-20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
, political organizer, and co-founder of both the
Communist Party of AustraliaThe Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991. It achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted banning in 1951...
and the
Australia First MovementAustralia First Movement was a proto-fascist movement which grew out of the Rational Association and the Victorian Socialist Party. Adela Pankhurst Walsh, of the famous suffragette family was involved in it, along with W. J. Miles, Rhodes scholar Percy Stephensen, Xavier Herbert, as well as famous...
.
Adela was born on 19 June 1885 in
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, into a politicized family: her father,
Richard PankhurstRichard Marsden Pankhurst was the son of Henry Francis Pankhurst and Margaret Marsden . He was born in Stoke but spent most of his life in Manchester and London. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Owens College of Manchester...
was a socialist and candidate for
ParliamentThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
, and her mother
Emmeline PankhurstEmmeline Pankhurst was an English political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement, which won women the right to vote...
and sisters
SylviaEstelle Sylvia Pankhurst was a notable campaigner for the suffragette movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism, and for peace....
and
ChristabelDame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE was a suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union , she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914 she became a fervent supporter of the war against Germany...
were leaders of the British suffragist movement. Adela attended the all-woman
Studley Horticultural CollegeStudley College was a horticultural and agricultural college for women in Warwickshire, England which operated from 1898 until 1969.-History:...
in Warwickshire, and
Manchester High School for GirlsManchester High School for Girls is an independent daytime school for girls and a member of the Girls School Association. It is situated in Fallowfield, Manchester, United Kingdom...
. As a teenager, Adela became involved in the militant
Women's Social and Political UnionThe Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
founded by her mother and sisters.
Following estrangement from her family, Adela emigrated to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
in 1914. She was recruited during
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
as an organiser for the Women's Peace Army in
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
by
Vida GoldsteinVida Jane Mary Goldstein was an early Australian feminist politician who campaigned for woman suffrage and social reform.-Early years:...
. Pankhurst wrote a book called
Put Up the Sword and addressed public meetings on her opposition to the war and conscription. She married Tom Walsh of the Federated Seamen's Union of Australasia in 1917. In 1920, Pankhurst became a founding member of the
Communist Party of AustraliaThe Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991. It achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted banning in 1951...
, from which she was later expelled.
She became disillusioned with communism and founded the anti-communist Australian Women's Guild of Empire in 1928. In 1941 Adela became one of the founding members of the right wing and nationalistic
Australia First MovementAustralia First Movement was a proto-fascist movement which grew out of the Rational Association and the Victorian Socialist Party. Adela Pankhurst Walsh, of the famous suffragette family was involved in it, along with W. J. Miles, Rhodes scholar Percy Stephensen, Xavier Herbert, as well as famous...
. She visited Japan in 1939 and was arrested and interned in 1942 for her advocacy of peace with
Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
See also
- History of feminism
The history of feminism is the history of feminist movements. Most feminist historians assert that all movements that work to overturn gender inequality and obtain women's rights should be considered feminist movements, even when they did not apply the term to themselves...
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- Suffragette
Suffragette is a term originally coined by the Daily Mail newspaper as a derogatory label for the more radical and militant members of the late-19th and early-20th century movement for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, in particular members of the Women's Social and Political Union...
- Women's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
- Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote, and historically includes the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century. Of currently existing independent countries, New Zealand was the first to give...
- Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not formally prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...
External links